Reading: Krugman on wishful thinking

Paul Krugman has this to say to those among us who simply cannot believe that Bush and his cronies would have the foolishness--or the arrogance--or the whatever--to duplicate their ill-conceived, dishonestly promoted, and poorly executed war on Iraq, this time aiming at Iran:

"But he wouldn't do that." That sentiment is what made it possible for President Bush to stampede America into the Iraq war and to fend off hard questions about the reasons for that war until after the 2004 election. Many people just didn't want to believe that an American president would deliberately mislead the nation on matters of war and peace.

Now people with contacts in the administration and the military warn that Mr. Bush may be planning another war. The most alarming of the warnings come from Seymour Hersh, the veteran investigative journalist who broke the Abu Ghraib scandal. Writing in The New Yorker, Mr. Hersh suggests that administration officials believe that a bombing campaign could lead to desirable regime change in Iran - and that they refuse to rule out the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

"But he wouldn't do that," say people who think they're being sensible. Given what we now know about the origins of the Iraq war, however, discounting the possibility that Mr. Bush will start another ill-conceived and unnecessary war isn't sensible. It's wishful thinking.

Krugman's article is in the Readings list in the sidebar.

And the normally soft-spoken Josh Marshall has this to say about hopes that Bush and his cabal will someday, finally, see reason:

President Bush's dimwit megalomania seems to have survived the disaster of his Iraq adventure wholly intact.

"Dimwit megalomania." Spot on, Josh.